Covers you like more than the original

I got thinking about this after following the soundtracks thread and realized that there are a lot of soundtrack cover versions that I really like - Echo and the Bunnymen doing “People Are Strange” in Lost Boys, for instance - and a conversation that I had the other day about cover versions that we liked more than the original or at least as much.

Some of my favs:

Johnny Cash's versions of “Rusty Cage” and “Hurt”Social Distortion's version of “Ring of Fire”Nirvana's version of “The Man Who Sold the World” (Sorry Mr. Bowie…Alien Ant Farm's version of “Smooth Criminal”

and, as a special mention, Richard Cheese's version of “Down With the Sickness” - this isn't a “like more” so much as a “just really love it and the original”

In general I like covers that aren't an exact copy of the original. Also cross-genre covers can be very tasty. I'm thinking of punkified and metalized versions. The Punkles covered most Beatless stuff. The Ramones did the Who's “Substitute”. The late Lemmy Kilmister (Motörhead) covered “Back in the USSR”. I like that version far more than the original. And I like to play it as well.

Thats a big list Lon but Metallica's ‘Whiskey in the Jar’ is just awful!!, Thin Lizzy's version rocks, and Eric Bell's guitar is beautiful. Its an old Irish folk song so both versions are covers, Bowies Man Who Sold The World is better too